Under Bright Green Skies
by Bobinsox
Summary: As infants cried out feebly in the arms of their despairing mothers, and the anti-satellite batteries continued their steady charge, Lucien L. Dove took a moment to consider the path his life had taken. I don't own AC. R
1. the Answer

In the cramped cockpit of his NEXT, within an elevator designed to hold such a war machine, Lucien L. Dove wept openly for one of the first times since the beginning of the ORCA Insurrection. He was the final surviving member of ORCA, one of the most skilled LYNXs of his time, and was about to single-handedly save mankind. To do so, he would have to kill the love of his life.

The elevator hit bottom. The core of Arteria Cranium, eerily lit in a soft red glow. He watched the radar, the signatures of two enemy NEXTs flashing though his mind, thanks to the AMS interface. Through his tears, he chuckled bitterly. Wynne D. Fanchion and Roy Salaand. Their allies dead, they would be thirsting for vengeance. He steeled himself.

His NEXT, an original, lightweight design he had newly dubbed "Sin", consisted of various parts cobbled together from other NEXT schematics from various of the corporations of the Pax Economica. Its single-horned head, not styled as other nexts, with something remotely eye or visor-like. This, a shiny, faceless void. Something he had taken from Aspina. Its sloped torso, taken from Omer's LAHIRE model. Its arms and legs were very thin, taken from the Interior Union's LATONA and Akavit's LINSTANT models, respectively. And wielding HLOR01-Canopus High-Laser Rifles. With its skeletal frame and wing-like add-on boosters, as well as its black coloration, he had previously fancied it as an angel of death for the corrupt, evil Corporations. Now, however, he likened it to a demon of the worst sort.

_Being forced to kill your former lover for your cause really puts things into perspective._

There. His first disillusioned, horribly embittered thought that was not a command to his NEXT since this battle began. Well, not exactly. But it showed how much this was really beginning to weigh in on him. Before the elevators, he simply took in details and killed everything that was in his way, NEXTs, Normals, Crew. Even a few walls. All of it, leading to this final showdown.

Serene Haze, his operator and partner-in-crime, spoke, pulling his mind out of such gruesome thoughts, if only for a moment.

"Eliminate the enemy NEXTS, Reiterpallasch and My Bliss."

_I suppose I have been looking for some closure to this relationship._

As he thought this, he hesitated. If even for a second.

"You've chosen your Answer. Now see it through."

He spoke through the communicator, after a longer pause.

"...I understand. The Closed Plan must be completed. At any cost."

He willed his machine, his personal demon, forward.


	2. A Dove at War

The Arteria facility was lit hellfire red. Dove could clearly see his two opponents' machines. Reiterpallasch, which Wynne D piloted, was a bronze-colored lightweight LATONA-model NEXT which he knew was equipped with mostly energy-based weaponry. My Bliss, piloted by the boisterous Roy Salaand, was a dark green heavy assault NEXT which favored missiles.

Salaand's voice sounded mockingly over the radio as a barrage of missiles rose to meet Dove's charge.

"Looks like our guest has arrived, Wynne D."

Dove's NEXT became a blur as bursts of orange fire sent his machine to the far sides of the chamber and back, avoiding the explosive impacts.

"Right on schedule."

Salaand and Wynne moved to engage, and the battle became a blur of speed, with flashes of destructive energy and bullets ripping through the air.

"It looks like you don't hesitate to kill for 'Humanity', do you?" spat Wynne D. Fanchon, firing a barrage of pulses from one of her machine's back-mounted weapons.

"Then lay down your life, like Thermidor before you!"

Dove dodged the storm of blue energy, firing two shots from his own High-Energy Rifles.

The scathingly-bright blasts missed their mark by a wide margin, with Salaand closing in as Wynne came back around.

Dove's machine spun with another burst from its boosters, and flung itself backwards, while firing another two shots of scintillating blue, this time at Roy's NEXT. They impacted with deadly force on Salaand's bright green sphere of Primal Armor. Roy turned his machine to bear its weapons on Dove, and turned right into another energy shot, this time dispersing the field of green particles protecting Salaand. Dove's boosters flared again, and this time he was behind Roy's machine. Roy had released missiles a moment before. They impacted the ground and walls near the elevator corridor.

Keeping Salaand between himself and Wynne's machine, he pressed his advantage, firing a powerful blue energy shot into My Bliss' core, and, as it turned around to bear its BECRUX plasma rifle on him, into it's shoulder. With one of his arm weapons damaged, and his NEXT's core melted halfway through, Roy disengaged from the close combat, backing away and firing his other arm weapon, a GA-manufactured gatling weapon, rapidly at Dove.

"Can we end this quickly? It's all we can hope for."

Salaand was weakened. Dove fired another shot, missing as Roy quickly boosted backwards.

Wynne D spoke, her voice steady, as she made her way quickly towards Dove from above, firing blue plasma from a shoulder-mounted weapon at him.

"Stand Firm, Roy."

Roy resumed his attack, bullets ripping through Dove's Primal Armor. Dove retaliated before Roy could recharge his particle shield, spinning around him and firing a burst of energy diagonally into the NEXT's boosters. A fire started, kojima particles leaked, and Roy Salaand choked out his last words.

"Not the best ending to my career..."

"I'm sorry, Wynne D," He coughed, "I wasn't much help..."

Wynne D spoke in an almost critical voice,

"Roy Salaand, a good guy?"

but there was compassion behind her words as she added,

"It doesn't suit you."

There was a lull in the battle as Reiterpallasch landed.

Wynne spoke again, her tone one of barely-contained anger,

"Dove, what are you fighting for? The destruction of the League? Peace?"

There was a pause.

"Answer me."

Dove chuckled bitterly,

"Wrong choice of words, Wy-"

He was cut off as the eye of the storm passed. Reiterpallasch's energy blade blazed to life in Dove's camera view. The green-white sphere of his primal armor sparked to life and was shredded through in short order by the azure blade. The burning plane of energy burned into Sin's core, carving a sideways path through the meager armor, slicing off the left protruding shoulder booster.

Unable to maneuver his NEXT's rifles in such close quarters, Dove made the machine to drop the right one in favor of his own forearm-mounted energy blade. With it, he was able to deflect Reiterpallasch's next swing. Boosting backwards, the machine raised his left energy rifle and attempted to fire, but Wynne's next strike cut into the weapon, forcing dove to jettison that weapon as well.

Automatically making his NEXT reach for the pulse gun in its hangar unit on its side, he pushed away another blade strike. Whipping the pulse gun up to Reiterpallasch's core, he opened fire with the small, automatic energy weapon.

The shots tore into its armor. As Reiterpallasch raised its arm to hit him with its blade, Dove activated his own, The blade spearing into her NEXT's armor. He pulled the blade diagonally up and out of its core, shearing armor and internal components as it went.

Reiterpallasch stopped moving. Wynne D. Fanchon spoke,

"To treasure a life. Is that too much to ask?"

Dove did not respond.

Wynne spoke again.

"It's twisted. You, this world, all of it."

Inside the cockpit of Sin, Dove activated the Craniums energy transfer control. Humanity could live on.

Dove bowed his head in grief and prepared to leave the chamber.

The only response he could find was to apologize, and there was no point in apologizing to a corpse.


End file.
